Abstract & Overview
Aspects of a recent large fire in a high-rise building in Hong Kong are discussed in this article. A general description is given and several points of concern are considered in this study. A point of primary interest is the long duration of the fire which burned for over twenty hours. The fire load inside the building, especially in offices at levels with high involvement, seemed to be very high. From the results, the possible fire load density (in fact the amount of materials burnt per floor area) in the building was expressed in terms of the ventilation conditions. A second point of interest is the fire environment in the building and zone model simulations were performed to help understand the probable fire environment under different conditions. Three simulations were performed to study the consequences of a fire starting in the lift shaft. Possibilities for large fires in offices at several floor levels are discussed and further aspects of the investigation are identified.